Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe attends the investiture ceremony for Democratic Republic of the Congo's President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa on Dec. 20, 2011.

The Zimbabwean strongman, once a celebrated revolutionary and hero to many in the decolonizing world, was knighted in 1994 — a gesture, it was hoped, that would warm relations between Harare and London. But in 2008, as Mugabe’s regime brutalized political opponents attempting to compete in elections, the title was revoked. The stubborn octogenarian probably doesn’t mind: he’s still President.